


Hello Again

by fojee



Category: I Remember You - Fandom, Korean Drama, 너를 기억해 | Hello Monster
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fix-it fic, M/M, Sexy Times, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-18
Updated: 2016-02-24
Packaged: 2018-05-21 10:02:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6047467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fojee/pseuds/fojee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One moment he was begging Lee Joon Young. "Bring him back! Erase everything you did and bring him back to me!" And the next, he could feel himself twisting, breaking apart and reforming, could feel his younger self merging into his flesh and bones and spirit.</p><p>And just like that, Hyeon was back in time to That Night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this the weekend after watching an EXO concert. (Blame D.O.) 
> 
> There will be sex, but pretty tame imho. Also, some references to a couple of real life tragedies in South Korea's history, one of which is particularly triggering, although I will not write anything explicit about the incident. I will post a link to the wiki page with the relevant chapters. At one point I will also summarize a bit of the show. I have also set this first scene in 1995. (It might have been 1996 on the show; can't watch it again or the feels will overflow.)
> 
> (Now with cover!)

 

“If the Universe came to an end every time there was some uncertainty about what had happened in it, it would never have got beyond the first picosecond. And many of course don't. It's like a human body, you see. A few cuts and bruises here and there don't hurt it. Not even major surgery if it's done properly. Paradoxes are just the scar tissue. Time and space heal themselves up around them and people simply remember a version of events which makes as much sense as they require it to make.”  
― Douglas Adams, _Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency_

 

Lee Hyeon didn't know how to explain it with words. One moment he was begging Lee Joon Young. "Bring him back! Erase everything you did and bring him back to me!" And the next, he could feel himself twisting, breaking apart and reforming, could feel his younger self merging into his flesh and bones and spirit. It hurt. His throat was raw as if he had spent hours screaming himself hoarse.

He opened his eyes, and he could see the walls of the hidden room in his house. He stood up on shaky feet, and made his way towards the door. The room wasn't meant to keep an adult prisoner. It was, after all, designed specifically for him. As a child, he couldn't reach the divot that would release the lock from the inside. But he was no longer a child. He touched it just as the noises registered.

His father's low timbre. And sounds of something breaking.

He stumbled out in his haste, and almost went head-first down the rest of the stairs. Before he could put logic to use, he had already called out, his voice coloured in something close to desperation, with a streak of hope. "Don't kill him! Please don't..." His words trailed away as he met Lee Joon Young's empty eyes. Lee Joon Young of twenty years ago, kneeling over his father, who looked winded and sluggish, but still definitely breathing.

After a breathless moment, Joon Young transferred the knife to his non-dominant hand and punched the professor twice. Then he stood up with careless grace and walked towards Hyeon. Who froze, straightening to his full height and trying not to flinch when Joon Young grabbed his chin. And tugged it down.

It was strange to discover that he had a few centimetres on the other man. His rational brain was catching up to him now. _Are you sure you're not dreaming? Could you really be here? Now?_

But he could feel the other man's fingers as surely as he could hear his own pounding heart. It really was him. That angelic face was something Hyeon had never managed to forget. He looked impossibly young to Hyeon, who felt every one of his thirty years in this moment.

"And who might you be, hmm?" Lee Joon Young asked.

Hyeon met his eyes but kept his silence. It didn't matter; Lee Joon Young always saw right through him. The dilation of Joon Young's pupils, and the slackness around the mouth gratified him somehow.

"Is it really you, Hyeon?" He nodded, helpless to do anything else. "I came here to save you," Joon Young said, smiling.

"I know," Hyeon murmured back. "But there's no need now." Then he _remembered_ the reason he wanted to go back in the first place. "Min!"

He all but ran out of the house, straight to the car parked nearby. He wrenched open the door. Min was curled up like a cat in the backseat. At the sight of him, Hyeon almost went to his knees in relief. He pressed his eyes onto his palms for a moment and murmured something like a prayer under his breath before reaching out to wake the child.

As soon as he was conscious, Min flinched away from the stranger's hand. Though he met the man's eyes readily enough.

"Don't be scared. It's me, Min. It's hyung," Hyeon spoke gently.

Min frowned. "You can't be hyung. You're too old."

"I changed somehow into an adult. So that I could take care of you." Hyeon motioned him closer.

Min scooted a few inches forward, but stared at him for a good minute before launching himself into Hyeon's open arms. His thin limbs wrapped around him as tight as tentacles. "You told me to run when there's a bad man. So I did."

Hyeon closed his eyes while his arms tightened around his brother. "Yes, I did tell you that. Smart boy." _So it was my fault all over again?_

"You knew exactly where he was," Lee Joon Young spoke from behind him. Hyeon turned around, still cradling Min close. The child was already half-asleep in his arms. "If I needed proof, that would suffice, wouldn't it? So you must have come from the future."

Hyeon bit his lip, nodding again. "A future that I hope will never come to pass."

"But your father will never believe you," Joon Young said. "He might get you committed instead. You'd end up in the same place you started."

Hyeon smiled a little. "Wherever I'd end up, you'd come for me, wouldn't you?"

The side of Joon Young's mouth curved up briefly. "You seem to know me very well."

"Only what you allowed me to know," Hyeon countered. "Were you offering a solution?"

"Yes. Leave the child to his father and come with me."

"I can't," Hyeon immediately answered, hands curling tighter around Min. "I won't leave him again."

Joon Young gave him a searching look. "Then we'll bring him along. Though you might consider how your father will feel to have everything taken from him."

"I know exactly how he will feel," Hyeon whispered.

"I see," Joon Young said. And Hyeon knew that he understood.

\---

When Professor Lee Joong Min woke up, it was to an empty house. Hyeon's things were untouched, but a good number of Min's clothes and toys were taken. And there was a note in his mailbox. It read: _I'm sorry, abuji. But monsters belong together. I will take care of Min. Please don't look for us._ It was signed Hyeon, though the writing was too elegant to be his ten-year old son's.

It must have been that bastard Lee Joon Young.


	2. Chapter 2

"I'll just tell you what I remember because memory is as close as I've gotten to building my own time machine.”   
― Samantha Hunt, _The Invention of Everything Else_

 

Joon Young drove them to a small shoebox apartment. "We'll have to move soon," he said. "I did not anticipate needing a bigger space than this." There were two rooms, a kitchenette, and a tiny bathroom. The rooms were barely furnished, and the walls were painted a faded green-grey. 

Hyeon nodded without speaking. He made up a small bed for Min on the couch, and then straightened up wearily. His every joint throbbed. However it had happened, the time travel had taken its toll on his body. It had also felt... Permanent. Irreversible. 

"I'll just take a shower," Joon Young said, playing at normal. "Please make yourself at home."

The strangeness of it was enough to catch Hyeon's attention. He turned to watch as Joon Young took some clothes and a towel and headed for the bathroom. The other man was moving a bit stiffly. How hurt was he, exactly?

He spent a few minutes putting Min's things away before he mustered up the nerve to slide the bathroom door open and slip through. Joon Young was still under the shower; Hyeon could trace his outline through the opaque partition. The man had turned his way immediately, but waited to see what he would do.

Hyeon hesitated for a fraction of a second before removing his own clothing. Every stitch of it. Then he opened the partition and stepped inside. It was a tight fit; he didn't have enough room to really look Joon Young up and down. But he could see the blossoming bruises on the other man's torso. He ran his fingers lightly across Joon Young's ribs. His abs were rock hard, and his hips cut like glass. 

"Was there something you needed?" The man asked, poker-faced as ever.

"I wanted to see the extent of your injuries," Hyeon said, though his voice hitched. "These are older."

"I acquired them in prison," Joon Young said. "They isolated me for the most part, but the guards can be quite vindictive."

Hyeon flinched at those words. "I was going to ask you for a favour," he spoke again, though his head was bowed and he couldn't quite look Joon Young in the eye.

But the other man maneuvered them around and pushed him against the tile. Then he pushed up against him. Hyeon had been half-hard since he walked inside, and the feel of Joon Young's flesh, the slide of his cock against his, inflamed the blood running through his every nerve. 

Joon Young tilted his head and murmured against his ear. "And what do I get out of this favour?"

Instead of answering, Hyeon slid down on his knees and with none-too-steady hands, guided Joon Young's hard flesh into his open mouth. It felt the same on his tongue, but the taste was different. Sweeter somehow. Richer. He hollowed his cheeks and sucked, his hands moving to Joon Young's hips to control his instinctive thrusts. 

He didn't immediately hear the noises the man was making above him, but they were half-formed words, gibberish in content, but in tone tender and full of wonder. His own need faded into the background as he focused on eliciting more of those low moans. His head banged against the tile a couple of times, before he turned them around, pushing Joon Young into stillness, and bobbing his head down again and again, sucking deep, occasionally scraping it with his teeth, until that flesh erupted, and his mouth filled with pulses of come. 

He swallowed as much as he could, and then pressed his forehead against Joon Young's protruding hipbone, trying to catch his breath. He felt fingers comb through his hair and then tug upwards. He got to his feet, though he had to lean a lot of his weight on Joon Young, because his knees were shaky. 

Far from looking post-coital, Joon Young's expression was calm, with an unspoken question in the curve of his brows. Hyeon was too out-of-breath to answer. But his own hard cock chose that moment to remind him of its existence. And as Joon Young's hand closed around it, he closed his eyes and groaned. It didn't take too long before his mind whited out with pleasure. 

He would have fallen if Joon Young had not held him up with surprising strength. He was limbless and boneless, almost asleep on his feet, while Joon Young washed him, dried him with a shared towel and led him out towards the bedroom.

He spared a distant thought to hoping that Min was still sleeping, because neither of them had anything on, and he couldn't bring himself to care too much.

The last thing he remembered was being tucked in bed, then feeling Joon Young slide in behind him, before sleep claimed him.

\---

Min woke up crying from a nightmare, and calling for his hyung. The room he was in was unfamiliar, which made him cry harder. He opened all the doors until he found the bedroom. But a stranger had sat up in the bed, and held a finger to his lips. "You'll wake your hyung up," the man said.

"He does so need to wake up so he can take care of me," Min announced in ringing tones, his nightmare all but forgotten. But the other man on the bed barely twitched. 

Joon Young narrowed his eyes, but the brat couldn't appreciate the unspoken threat, so he stood up, pulling on a pair of cotton pants and herded the child out the room.

"If you behave, I'll cook you some breakfast," he promised.

"But it won't taste as good as hyung's." The shrill voice grated on his ears, but Joon Young held onto his patience.

"You're far too young to be so discriminating," he told the brat. "And anyway, your hyung is tired, so how about we make breakfast for him today instead. Would you like to help me?"

The question was enough of a novelty--hyung had been too protective to let him into the kitchen--that Min said yes.

The result was... not too much of a disaster.

When Hyeon opened his eyes, he thought last night was a cross between a dream and an illusion. There were some clothes on the bedside table and he put them on with aching limbs and aching heart.

And then he heard a child giggle. His heart leapt in his throat. 

He opened the door, already calling for Min. His eight-year old brother ran to his arms with complete trust. Hyeon scooped him up, and breathed in his childish scent. Then he met Joon Young's eyes. 

It wasn't a dream. He was smiling and Lee Joon Young smiled back, looking like the child he never got to be.

Then Hyeon noticed the mess in the kitchen, and the white footprints across the room, from Min tracking flour. "Neither of you are allowed to cook," he said as sternly as he could. "Ever."

Min giggled harder. Hyung was hyung after all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finished it today. (Though I'll see if I need to do some minor edits.) It'll be six parts plus a lengthy coda. 
> 
> Not much of a plot... Just an excuse to put adult!Hyeon and young!LJY in the same room. ;)

"Time is intimately related to mind and thought and... to possibility and probability; hence, time is as real as thought."  
― Fred Alan Wolf, _The Yoga of Time Travel: How the Mind Can Defeat Time_

 

"You mentioned a favour," Joon Young brought up after breakfast. Hyeon had settled Min down with his sketchpad and a well-used set of crayons, and was currently cleaning up in the kitchen.

Hyeon put away the last dish, keeping an eye on Min before nodding. When he spoke, his voice was barely audible. "I need you to tell Cha Ji An where her father is buried."

Lee Joon Young tilted his head. "Who's Cha Ji An?"

Hyeon almost choked on that. His mind shied away from the woman he had left behind in the future, so instead he thought of the little girl who had followed him around as a child. "She's the daughter of that guard that was with you when you escaped."

"Ah," Joon Young uttered. "Actions and consequences again. Will she become important in my future?"

Hyeon shrugged. "The other way around I'm afraid. She has... Will have, I mean. She will have some issues with obsession. It's easier to cut it off before it has a chance to grow."

Joon Young leaned against the kitchen counter. "Officer Cha, however, is not quite dead."

Hyeon's eyes widened at this news. "Oh."

"Aren't you going to ask for his life?"

Hyeon looked at Joon Young through his lashes. "Only if you are willing to risk it."

Joon Young smiled at him with something like approval. "I think we can manage."

\---

The man in chains looked up as the door swung open. Was this it? Was today the day he would finally die?

The kid walked in, looking as unruffled as ever. Officer Cha was not a man given to violence, but he had taken some satisfaction in beating the kid, in coaxing what little reactions he could. Now, he had to struggle to remember that emotion.

But the kid took out keys and unlocked his cuffs. He fell to the ground hard. His arms felt like blocks of wood at the end of his shoulders. 

"There's a market down the street," the kid said before turning away. "I'm sure you'll be able to borrow a phone to call the police."

"Why?" Officer Cha asked, his voice raspy.

"Why spare your worthless life?" The kid asked for him, meeting his eyes one last time. "They will interrogate you about it, I suppose. You can tell them someone asked me to save you for your daughter's sake. A boy named Lee Hyeon. Goodbye Officer Cha. Let's hope for both our sakes that this is the last time we'll see each other again."

And the kid walked away, leaving the door to the room wide open.

\---

It was strange to watch Lee Joon Young in action. Planning out their new identities, looking for a place that could fit the three of them without unnecessary bloodshed. Hyeon knew he was technically older than the other man, and possibly better equipped to handle such tasks. But he was content to sit back on the wobbly chair and watch him decide things.

When Joon Young made an appointment for a plastic surgeon, however, he made a noise that caught the other man's attention.

"You disapprove?" Joon Young asked, after ending the call, replacing the handset in its cradle. It was a visceral reminder to Hyeon that he really was in the past. Mobile phones were just starting to be widely available in 1995, but they were bulky and primitive. 

He leaned forward and brushed a thumb across those lips. "Not really. But I think I'll miss this face." And the new one--the one that he had gotten to know in his timeline--was a face that he associated with a lot of emotions, most of them negative. 

Joon Young studied his expression. "It's risky to keep it if I want to stay in the country."

Hyeon smiled. "How do you feel about America? I've always wanted to show Min around in New York."

Joon Young raised an eyebrow. "I'll add it to our options."

"Nobody was really looking for you the first time around," Hyeon added softly. "I guess the police managed to cover it up."

"It's in their best interests to bury the whole mess. Your father, however, has a very compelling reason to keep it going," Joon Young said. "You may have averted one obsession, only to create another."

Hyeon closed his eyes. "You can still send a message to Officer Hyun Ji Soo, can't you? Through the magazine?"

Joon Young merely tilted his head.

"Then tell her to divert his attention as much as possible." Hyeon hesitated. "Worse comes to worst, we can fake our deaths."

"I'll see what I can do. What's this?" Joon Young asked, reaching for the piece of paper in front of Hyeon. It was something he had been working on all morning, and it was far from complete.

"Relevant events in the next twenty years, as much of it as I can remember," he answered. "I thought it would help, especially with our finances." At the top of the list was the strike coming at the end of the next year, and the upcoming economic crisis in Asia. There were also a list of companies and technologies to invest in. 

Joon Young smiled. "I'll make good use of this."

"I know you will," Hyeon murmured. "You're like a cat. You always land on your feet."

Joon Young tapped another, shorter list on the bottom of the page. "Going to play hero?"

"If possible," Hyeon said with a shrug, but his eyes were haunted. 

Following impulse, Joon Young straddled his lap, and pulled him into a kiss. Hyeon slid a hand beneath the other man's shirt, to roam across his back. When he pulled away for a breath, he was startled by Min, who was standing in front of them, looking very unhappy.

"I don't like you," Min announced to Lee Joon Young. "My hyung is mine. Not yours."

Joon Young laughed softly. "I'm sorry, brat. But you're going to have to learn to share."

Hyeon bit back a smile at the outraged expression on his brother's face. He pulled him in and kissed him on the forehead. "I still love you best, Min." 

Min stuck out his tongue at Joon Young, who did likewise. 

\---

The happiest day of Cha Ji An's life was the day her father came back. 

She didn't know exactly what happened to him. He just went missing. And when he turned up, he was injured but not too badly, more bruised and dehydrated than anything. Nobody would tell her anything, not father, nor aunt.

The only thing she was sure about was that he was still alive thanks to a boy named Lee Hyeon.


	4. Chapter 4

"In a sense, time travel means that you’re traveling both in time and into other universes. If you go back into the past, you’ll go into another universe. As soon as you arrive at the past, you’re making a choice and there’ll be a split. Our universe will not be affected by what you do in your visit to the past."  
― Ronald Mallett, Theoretical Physicist

 

Professor Lee Joong Min understood why the higher-ups weren't putting resources on the man-hunt. They would prefer that Lee Joon Young disappear without a trace. Like all those bodies he must have disposed of somehow. 

The professor knew the bastard could have gotten acquitted anyway, if he had hired a sharp enough lawyer, or maybe bribed a judge or three. The evidence they had manufactured against him wasn't full-proof, even if their little conspiracy did include a judge and the head of police. 

Both of which were no help to him now. Joong Min knew what they must be thinking: _It's karmic retribution._ The faked evidence had been _his_ idea. Also: _Thank heavens our kids are safe._

He couldn't bear to go home these days. The house was too empty of children's voices. And too full of regrets. And yet he couldn't imagine selling it and moving away.

He knew it was a long shot, but he, along with a couple of detectives that he had worked with, kept an eye out for sightings. Most of them were false leads. But once or twice, he felt the hair at the back of his neck stand up, and he knew he had just missed the bastard.

It was just over four months when he got a tip. A man that matched Lee Joon Young's description was seen pulling the fire alarm of the Sampoong Department Store, a quarter of an hour before the entire building collapsed. The damage was still catastrophic, as most people had ignored the sirens and continued their shopping, but there were a good number who had gotten out just in time. 

He wasn't sure how reliable the tip was. He had gotten it weeks after the event, from one of the lucky people who had been rescued from the rubble. But it had a ring of truth to it. 

And yet this, along with the act of freeing Officer Cha, just didn't add up. 

The professor reread his notes, and played the tapes from their sessions. Could the subject's delusions of persecution have progressed into delusions of grandeur? A messiah complex?

Or could it be his Hyeon's influence? He recalled Officer Cha's statement that Lee Joon Young had deliberately named his son as the reason he was released. Was this another game?

And yet, the real question he could not even begin to answer: _How did he know?_

\---

This Lee Joon Young studied Hyeon's face with the same degree of intensity as the other one. 

The thought was fleeting; Hyeon arched into those fingers, his muscles tensing as they pushed inside him with barely enough lube. They've fallen into bed together without really talking about anything. And when he wasn't going out of his mind with pleasure, he couldn't help but notice the similarities, and the differences. But sometimes, it felt like that first time all over again.

Of course, Hyeon was pretty sure he was the other man's first for everything, except perhaps for straight sex. (He spares a slightly jealous thought to wonder where Park Joo Ah was right now.) It made Joon Young's attention to every reaction, his and Hyeon's, occasionally overwhelming.

The fingers pressed into his prostate at just the right angle, and Hyeon whimpered at the sensation, his hands clenching and releasing uselessly above his head, tied as they were to the headboard. They pressed in again, then again. Until he was howling and shooting come all over his stomach.

Afterwards, he felt wrecked, like he had been torn open from neck to sternum, revealing the blood flowing through every artery, the flex of muscles beneath his skin, the desperate pounding of his heart. 

Lee Joon Young drank it all in with dark, hooded eyes.

\---

It seemed a waste of time to go back to school and take a degree that he had already learned, so Hyeon waved goodbye to a career in the academe. He didn't feel much regret about it. Instead, he focused on home-schooling his brother. He also started writing again. 

At first, it was a way of remembering a future that he had left behind. But he soon started changing events and people enough to call the growing manuscript 'fiction.' But there were some things he couldn't write down, or speak of. 

With a heavy heart, he set the manuscript aside. Then focused on writing stories for Min instead. Fanciful fables, amended or inverted fairy tales, or something a touch darker. Like an exorcism onto the page. 

His brother loved them. And his sketchpads were soon filled with images and scenes straight from them in layers of crayons pressed deep against the paper. All signed with the eyes shaped like infinity. It felt like a personal symbol of Hyeon's own journey back. 

Then Hyeon had the brilliant idea of introducing his brother to comic books. Min took to the new form like duck to water. And soon, his brother was writing and drawing his own stories full of grotesque (two-headed, limbless, empty-eyed) creatures meeting horrible accidents (decapitation, fire, stabbing, drowning). 

The psychologist in him could read the signs of Min's fractured sense of self, and his tendency towards lack of empathy. Min covered entire panels with scenes of carnage and found a hundred ways to express a character screaming. None of the stories had endings that could be described as happy. Even knowing what he did about the original triggering event that led them both here, all that Hyeon could see was the darkness in his brother's soul. 

But he did not despair. This just renewed Hyeon's conviction that miracles do happen. He himself was proof of that. He had a promise to keep. He will save Min no matter what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hyeon's stories here I imagine as a cross between Angela Carter and Neil Gaiman's more disturbing tales. Also I wish I can draw half as well as kid!Min.
> 
> You can read more about the referenced event: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampoong_Department_Store_collapse


	5. Chapter 5

“I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance.”  
― Beryl Markham, _West with the Night_

 

The phone rang one early evening, while Min was out on a playdate with the kids next door--an experiment that neither he nor Joon Young felt optimistic about. Hyeon answered it. 

"I need you to pick me up," Joon Young spoke on the other line. "I'm at a payphone." And he recited the address.

They had gotten a car of their own in the preceding months. But Joon Young still preferred stealing transport when doing his _missions_. Hyeon grabbed the keys near the door, mouth pressed together.

His expression didn't improve when Joon Young slid inside the backseat. The other man was pale, and he had a gash on the side of his head, and a makeshift bandage around his left arm. 

Still, Hyeon concentrated on the road and kept his mouth shut, and then all but carried Lee Joon Young into the bedroom, before taking out the large first aid kit from the closet.

"Can you take your shirt off? Or should I just cut it off you?" He asked as evenly as he could. 

"Better cut it off," Joon Young answered.

Hyeon did so, then hissed at the damage revealed underneath. On Joon Young's ribs and back were red patches that he knew would blossom into bruises in the next few days. "Did you break anything?" He demanded.

"No," Joon Young said, his voice uncharacteristically soft and almost meek.

"Who did you tangle with? Some kind of black belter?"

Joon Young shrugged. "He was a big guy. I had a bitch of a time disposing of the body."

Hyeon almost flinched at that bald statement. He sighed noisily instead, while cleaning the scratch on the arm and the head wound. But there was something odd about the scratch. It looked too straight, and didn't seem to have been caused by a knife.

"Did you get shot at?" He asked, voice rising.

Joon Young shrugged again. "He missed. I didn't."

Just then the doorbell rang, and Hyeon had to cut short their conversation. Min was at the door smiling with a mouth smeared in ice cream. Hyeon smiled back, thanked the neighbours, and hauled his brother straight to a bath. All the while he was seething.

He had to read Min three stories just to get him to sleep, and by then his temper had reached fever-pitch.

Joon Young was lying on the bed, his arm already bandaged. He had changed into loose pants and looked half-asleep. 

"You hungry?" Hyeon asked roughly.

"I'm fine," the other man murmured.

Hyeon took off his clothes with slow deliberation. He rummaged through the bedside drawer and dropped the lube on the bed while he crawled towards Joon Young. "Will you be able to handle face to face?" He asked.

Joon Young's pupils had widened, to Hyeon's satisfaction. He nodded mutely.

"Tell me if it's too much," Hyeon ordered even as he pulled down Joon Young's pants, dropping it on the floor, and spreading the other man's legs open. He grabbed a pillow and shoved it under. Then uncapping the bottle of lube, he proceeded to prepare Joon Young in an almost clinical manner.

They had never done this before, in either lifetimes. Hyeon thought he should feel more nervous, but seeing Joon Young so pliant beneath him was like a shot of adrenaline directly in the vein. 

Even so, he was careful as he lifted Joon Young's left leg over his shoulder. He leaned forward and bit those lips. Joon Young captured his mouth and the kiss turned into a battle, tongue against tongue, teeth sharp and lips tender, and between them the taste of blood. Hyeon slowly pressed into the other man, inching past the sphincter until he was fully sheathed inside. He swallowed the delicious sounds Joon Young was making, gentling the kiss, then moving downwards to pepper Joon Young's throat with love bites.

His lover moved restlessly beneath him, and Hyeon began to thrust in a slow, deliberate pace. He ran the pads of his fingers down the other's torso, pressed his thumb against the head of Joon Young's cock, while using his other hand to hold himself up, careful not to put his weight on the still tender injuries. 

He started varying his rhythm, going fast and then slowing down again, determined to keep Joon Young hovering just over the edge. He could feel the man's nails biting into his arms, and his own control was nearing its limit. Finally, he whispered two words into Joon Young's ear. It brought the both of them hurtling over the cliff together. Two little deaths. 

He buried his face against the curve of Joon Young's neck, palm pressing hard over the other man's heart, and spoke the rest of the words as if to complete a spell.

_You're mine. And I'm yours._

Lee Joon Young ran his fingers over Hyeon's flank. He was tired and sore, but wide awake at two in the morning, watching that chest rise and fall. He may have miscalculated; his assumptions regarding Hyeon needed to be revised in the light of last night's role reversal. 

The room smelled like their combined musk, a heady scent he wanted to bottle. An interesting idea. What would a perfume made of humans smell like? He followed that thread of thought into the dark.

\---

They went about their tasks the following morning as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Lee Joon Young stayed home all day, spending some time with Min, a prospect that Hyeon had learned to live with. The sight of those two heads bent together still gave him the chills sometimes.

But after nightfall, Hyeon became aware of the silence between him and Joon Young, which had an expectant quality to it. He tucked Min into bed, kissing his forehead, while Joon Young stood by the door. 

Hyeon followed the other man out the house to a wrought-iron bench just outside their door. They sat together and stared out into the night. 

"I wasn't sure you'd want to know," Hyeon finally spoke into the waiting emptiness.

Joon Young tilted his head and said gently. "Whatever it is, we can carry it together."

Hyeon sighed and leaned on the back of the bench. 

"We were enemies," he began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This scene is pretty much the whole impetus of this fic. Hahaha.


	6. Chapter 6

"In Einstein’s equation, time is a river. It speeds up, meanders, and slows down. The new wrinkle is that it can have whirlpools and fork into two rivers. So, if the river of time can be bent into a pretzel, create whirlpools and fork into two rivers, then time travel cannot be ruled out."  
― Michio Kaku, Theoretical Physicist 

 

"You took Min away from me that same night you killed my father," Hyeon spoke through a throat that felt as jagged as broken glass; he couldn't look at the man sitting next to him. "My memory had fractured that night, and all I had were bits and pieces. While in your care, you raised Min to think that I abandoned him. And he killed people as a replacement to killing me. Then one day he sent me a message--a painting at a crime scene--which led me to finding the two of you, closer than I could ever have imagined." Hyeon rubbed at his eyes. "But there was also Cha Ji An."

"The one with the grudge," Joon Young said softly.

Hyeon nodded. "She worked as a detective while I consulted with their team."

"And you fell for her." The other man's tone was flat, almost accusing.

"She reminded me of Min. And myself," Hyeon murmured, thinking of the brief time he and Cha Ji An lived together. He took a deep breath before continuing. "I confirmed Min's identity, and then yours. Even so, we didn't have any evidence. And then Min tried to kill you."

Joon Young's lips curved into a chilling smile. "I take it he failed."

"By the time I showed up, you had stabbed him instead." Hyeon was startled out of the dark memory by the other man clasping their hands together. "I tried to choke you, but your accomplice struck me and when I woke up, the three of you were gone. I only found out later that Min had survived." He bowed his head.

"I talked to him about starting over, giving him a choice. He chose to turn himself in." His voice wavered, and he had hunched over, shivering in the breezeless night. "He never made it to trial," Hyeon whispered. "Someone sent a killer for him. He was found hanging in his cell."

Joon Young pulled him in his arms, while he pressed his face on the other man's shoulder. "I went crazy, blamed everyone, especially myself. Finally Cha Ji An had enough and threw me out on my ear, and I eventually found my way to you. I slept with you as an attempt to fill the hole in me. You tried to take care of me in your own way, but I think I was too broken. I had _one wish_." 

He pulled back just enough to meet Joon Young's eyes. "I don't know which god or devil was listening that night, but here I am." He laughed a little. "I don't know why you believed me so easily. It sounds so crazy when I say it out loud. I travelled through time to save my brother's life. I took the place of my ten-year old self."

"Maybe I just don't know enough about the world to decide what's possible and not possible." Joon Young stared into his eyes, before saying, "I don't think you'd appreciate an apology."

Hyeon shook his head. "You never apologize. So don't start now."

Joon Young leaned forward and kissed him, a chaste press of lips against his. "I'll do better this time around."

Hyeon stared at the other man. "I'll hold you to that," he finally said. 

"I guess this is what a family feels like," Lee Joon Young murmured. The words made something squeeze hard in Hyeon's chest. 

\---

Months passed. Another night; another mission. This time, Lee Joon Young came home with a child in his arms. The boy was covered in blood and bruises and grime.

Hyeon watched as Joon Young laid the child with that strange tenderness of his on their bed. The ever-curious Min tried to climb on as well, and Hyeon had to endure the kicks and bites when he picked Min up and carried him out. "He's hurt, so I need you to keep clear while your samchon tends to his wounds," he spoke firmly over Min's crying.

"But I just want to see! Why won't you let me?" In the end, Hyeon had to stay with Min for the entire night, while Joon Young tended to his young patient.

The next morning, he peeked into the room. Joon Young was digging through the closet for a shirt. The child was still sleeping on the bed. His face was cleaner, though that only emphasized the extent of his injuries. Both eyes were swollen shut, and his arms and legs had bruises in varying stages of healing. If he hadn't been watching for the rise and fall of that chest, he'd have thought the child was dead.

Still, there was something about that line of nose and the shape of those lips... Hyeon must have made an exclamatory noise which caught Joon Young's attention. "Is he someone familiar?" 

"Only from a picture," Hyeon said truthfully. It was Choi Eun-Bok at eleven, the same child in the picture Cha Ji An had stolen from the album. One of Joon Young's lost children. It was hard to imagine that the child would grow up and become a detective in twenty years, and even harder to imagine him killing Hyun Ji Soo.

He had been loathe to stop Joon Young from completing his missions. Saying he didn't want to change too much of history was just an excuse. In cases like these, saving the parent could mean condemning the child to death. It was still wrong, but he didn't know anymore what was right.

When did he lose his moral compass? Probably at the same time he lost Cha Ji An.

"So," Joon Young started to say, and Hyeon automatically turned to him. "Can we keep him?"

Hyeon blinked, then his mouth softened into a smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes. "Min will throw another tantrum." At Joon Young's raised eyebrow, he added. "That sounds like a terrible idea. Let's go do that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will just be a coda that I will post tomorrow. 
> 
> I think I'm almost done with this kdrama. There's only about one other AU lurking in my brain. I mean I did think of writing a Supernatural fusion, or a vampire!au but they might be a little beyond my skills...


	7. Coda: Time Goes By

I know why families were created with all their imperfections. They humanize you. They are made to make you forget yourself occasionally, so that the beautiful balance of life is not destroyed.  
\-- Anais Nin

 

It took Hyeon a long time to find the right girl. And girl she was, all of fourteen, frightened out of her wits and half-unclothed on the bed, and surrounded by high school boys, one of which was holding a camcorder.

Hyeon, safe behind his mask, strode inside and grabbed the camcorder without pausing, throwing it one-handed to Eun Bok who stood shoulder to shoulder with Min and Joon Young just inside the door.

He knew they must look like they came straight out of nightmares, four figures garbed in black with dokkaebi masks--complete with horns and fangs painted in black and red--covering their entire heads.

When one of the boys came at him with a baseball bat, he took great pleasure in wrenching it from him, and dislocating his shoulder. He gestured towards the girl, and Min and Eun Bok grabbed her and her things and led her out of the room. He had instructed them to get her to safety and keep out of the way. Min had pouted at this, but Hyeon wouldn't have allowed him to participate otherwise.

Joon Young stepped forward and between the two of them, they hogtied and gagged all the boys.

He knew behind the mask, Joon Young was smiling as he leaned towards the ringleader and asked, "Shall we play a game?"

Meanwhile Hyeon grabbed the bag that they left by the door, and unzipped it, taking out the long piece of iron and the portable gas lamp.

He drank in the whimpers and muffled pleas like the sweetest music.

 

Min and Eun Bok ignored the looks they were getting as they escorted the girl to the bus stop. She hadn't said a word, but her eyes were wild, and she flinched whenever they came near, and tears were falling down her face. Min wanted to grab her and shake her, but he knew Eun Bok would give a full report to his hyung. He was such a tattle-tale.

So he kept his silence when they reached the bus stop. Eun Bok crouched down in front of the girl. "Do you have your pass with you?" He asked kindly. She nodded. "That's good. Go straight home now, okay? You don't have to report it to the police; we'll take care of it. Just change your phone number and be more careful next time."

The girl grabbed his arm as he tried to stand. "Who are you? And how did you know?" She blurted out. "I didn't even tell my sister where I was going."

"We're demons," Min answered flatly.

"That's right," Eun Bok said just as a bus arrived. "We're dokkaebi sent here to punish the wicked. Now go on, or you'll miss your ride."

She gave them a poor attempt at a smile and got on the bus, waving at them through the window. They watched it leave with blank eyes.

"You're pretty good at that," Min admitted grudgingly.

"At what?" Eun Bok asked.

"At pretending to be human."

Eun Bok shrugged. He didn't really know what made him different from the other kid. It was enough that the ahjussis treated the two of them the same. Like family. "So what now?" He asked.

Min took out the spray cans in his black backpack. "Now we paint the town red."

They drew demon faces all along the streets of Miryang.

 

When the boys were eventually found by the police, they were naked, tied together, their dicks had marks on them as if guidelines for a surgeon cutting them off, and they had brands on their chests that labelled them _rapist._ There was also a message on the wall above them: _Beware the dokkaebi's wrath, rapists of Miryang. We are watching._

Suddenly, all that graffiti around the city of demon faces took on a more sinister meaning.

 

A few months later, a webtoon started gaining popularity after it published the tale of the avenging dokkaebi swooping down on the town of Miryang, reading the minds of its inhabitants.

Min particularly enjoyed drawing the terrified expressions on the boys' faces as they cowered in front of the demons.

\---

Lee Joong Min looked up this webtoon after he heard some cops discussing it. The art was pretty good, detailed and atmospheric. The storyline had become an urban legend by now, though the fact that it showed the other boys in the same town having the same thoughts as the would-be rapists was chilling. And then he noticed the artist's signature in the corner, and his heart beat faster. The symbol of infinity turned into a pair of eyes. Could it be Hyeon?

He had to pull some strings in order to track the ISP number of the person who uploaded the images. But the computer forensic specialist got his ass professionally redirected all around the world and handed back to him, leaving Joong Min with a big, fat nothing. And then he just gave up and left a comment under the last page of the webtoon.

One week later and he received a reply.

\---

"What's the use of meeting him now?" Min asked his hyung. "I'm eighteen anyway. It's not like he still has authority over me."

Hyeon pulled at the knot of the tie around Min's neck, and smoothed his collar. "I just wanted to give him some peace of mind. And I can't do it, because I'm too old to be Hyeon. Don't worry," he added, meeting his brother's eyes. "I'll be nearby in case he gets violent." He had followed his father's life in the ten years since he time-travelled. Professor Lee Joong Min had started drinking, and had gotten picked up by the police a couple of times for picking fights. He would sober up for a while before the cycle would repeat itself.

They had picked the location, a fountain in the middle of a public park at night. Easier to disappear after.

Min saw the old man sitting on the lip of the fountain, and he almost turned back. He remembered his father, of course; he had always been good with faces. But the man was a stranger. Even as a kid, Min had had little to do with him. Abuji had always been too busy with his classes, and his work with the police.

But he made himself take one step, then another, until he was standing in front of the man.

Lee Joong Min stood up. "Hyeon?" He asked, voice wavering. "Is it really you?"

"No," the young man said. "I'm Min."

"Min!" Joong Min grabbed him into a tight hug, choking back the tears. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again." Then he put his hands on his son's shoulders and pulled away just enough to ask. "Where's your hyung?"

"Somewhere close by," Min answered, face still expressionless. "He didn't want to come."

Joong Min's lips thinned. Of course. That monster must have gotten to him. "What about Lee Joon Young? Is he here?" Anger--now a familiar friend--rose up in his breast.

Min shook his head. Joon Young was at the hospital where he was doing his residency, but it would be counter-productive to say that to his father.

"What has that bastard done to you and Hyeon?" Joong Min demanded. "You have to tell me so we can stop him, Min."

Min shook his head again. "He's not a good man," he said, thinking of his and samchon's on-going rivalry over his hyung's attention. "But he was like a father to me."

Joong Min's face crumpled. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying hyung and I came with him. Willingly." Min watched the expressions on his father's face with interest.

"No, that's not true!" Joong Min denied. "He must have manipulated the two of you. Just come home with me and you'll realize it."

"I only came to tell you that we're alive," Min interrupted. "So stop looking for us." He wrenched free of his father's grip and turned to walk away.

Joong Min cast about for something to say. "What about that drawing?" He called out. Min stopped and looked back.

"What about it?" Min asked

"It was Hyeon's, wasn't it? I recognized the signature from his sketchpads. What's Hyeon's connection to what happened in Miryang?"

Min laughed. "You still don't get it, abuji. I lied! All those years ago, when you asked me about the drawings, I lied to you." He walked forward and leaned close to his father's face to whisper in his ear. " _I'm_ the monster, abuji. Not hyung."

He stepped back and smirked while his father covered his mouth with his hand. "How is that possible? Hyeon was the one who..."

"The only thing hyung ever did was to protect me. Even from myself," Min said. "And you took him from me. You locked him away, and left me by myself. So don't look for us anymore, abuji. If you do, I might have to kill you."

The words struck Joong Min like a knife in his gut. But he grabbed Min's wrist and pulled. "Don't turn your back on me! We're not done yet. I won't let you go back to that monster, do you hear me? I won't--"

A shadow detached itself from the nearby trees, and disengaged his grip on Min's arm with almost casual ease. Joong Min blinked. The man looked to be in his late thirties. He was just beginning to go grey at the temples, but his hands on Joong Min's shoulder and wrist were strong and steady.

"Who the fuck are you?" He asked.

"Nobody," the man answered. "I'm just making sure you don't hurt anyone here."

"You have it all backwards," Joong Min protested. "I'm not the bad guy here."

"No?" The man asked. "Then that's good. You'll let him walk away, won't you?" It was a barely veiled threat.

"You're not Lee Joon Young," Joong Min murmured almost to himself.

"No, but I'm family. His and your sons'." Hyeon smiled sadly at his father. "Children grow up, professor. Sometimes, they grow up sooner than we hope. Your sons don't need you anymore. So please do the wise thing and let bygones be bygones."

"Has Lee Joon Young stopped killing?" Joong Min demanded this stranger, then turned to Min. "Is that who you choose to be your family instead of me?"

"But he sees us for who we are. And he accepts us whole-heartedly, which is more than I can say for you," Min interjected from behind Hyeon's shoulder.

"I'm asking for your sake, professor," the man spoke. "Joon Young let you live as a favour to Hyeon. The day you see him again will be the day you die." The words had a prophetic feel to them, and Lee Joong Min shivered in spite of himself.

"What else can I do?" He asked, voice breaking, back slumping in defeat.

Hyeon squeezed his father's shoulder, close to tears himself. "Live. Live well. You're young enough to find love again. Quit your job. Stop drinking. Find a reason, abuji. And when you think of us, know that we are happy now."

Lee Joong Min opened his mouth, brows drawing in together. The man had called him father. In the lamp light, he did resemble his oldest son a little, especially around the eyes. But it didn't make sense. He was about twenty years too old.

He would have said more, but Min chose that moment to use a taser on him.

"Min!" Hyeon protested.

"Sorry, hyung. But he wouldn't have let us go." Those words were the last thing he heard before he lost consciousness.

When Lee Joong Min woke up, it was almost dawn and he was alone. He sat up, hands cradling his aching head, still reeling. But there was space in his chest now, like he can breathe a little easier. He laughed out loud, and somewhere along the way, it turned into sobs. Deep, wrenching sobs, as for the first time, he let himself mourn for his family.

\---

Min was standing in front of the muses, sketching the shadows on a drawing pad with complete focus and calm. Joon Young and Hyeon were a few feet away, by the glass cases that held the urns.

"So you're not going to push for him to become a lawyer?" Joon Young asked him, leaning forward to read the inscription.

Hyeon was watching Min. He had been here several times after all, albeit in his other lifetime. "He's a different person," he murmured. "It wouldn't be fair to expect him to turn out the same way."

Interrupting their discussion, Eun Bok strolled in from the other room with hands crossed over his chest. "We're still on the first floor!" He complained. "At this rate, it'll take us days to see every room."

Hyeon laughed. "The Met is an experience that can only be absorbed in small doses. Go on. Find a period you like. We can meet by the cafe in say, four o'clock." He glanced down at his watch.

"Just as long as we don't miss the play," Eun Bok muttered before walking away.

He laughed again. The young man he had adopted turned out to have something of a passion for musicals. Hyeon hadn't realized how lonely he had been, growing up in New York by himself, until he had come back for a short vacation surrounded by his family.

\---

He had published several children's books before he finally finished the manuscript for the thriller. It was truth mixed with fiction, about a hero fighting the killer within his heart. It debuted in the number one spot on the bestselling list. His publisher begged him to break his rule of no live appearances and attend a book-signing at the biggest bookstore in Seoul.

Hyeon's father had died the previous spring--heart complications. He himself had just turned (physically) fifty, and no longer saw the point of living in hiding. (Although he still kept his fake name.) He said yes.

Then he had the shock of his life when after signing books for dozens of fans, he came face to face with Cha Ji An.

She looked exactly like he remembered her. Her smile was sweet and bright and real as she held out his novel for him to sign. "I loved your book, sajangnim," she was saying.

Hyeon smiled. "Ah, I'm glad to have such a beautiful fan."

The guy behind her in the line cleared his throat. Cha Ji An laughed. "Don't flirt with me, sajangnim, or my boyfriend will get mad."

Lee Hyeon met Team Leader Kang's eyes, and the world shifted just a little bit further off its axis.

He motioned her closer with a couple of fingers and murmured when she leaned forward. "You can tell him not to worry. My boyfriend is very possessive, too."

He winked and had the pleasure of watching Cha Ji An blush bright red.

That was the last time he would see her. But in his next novel, he wrote about a woman on a mission to avenge her father, eventually ruining her life in the process. It was easier to confess dark truths when he had witnessed her full of joy and free from that burden.

 

Eun Bok had gone into the police academy. Hyeon watched over his progress with careful attention. He rarely intervened, except to steer his adopted son away from his once-foster mother, and away from his once-girlfriend. There were still shadows in Eun Bok's eyes, and the career he had chosen did little to clear them away. But Hyeon could recognize in Eun Bok the same indomitable will he saw in the mirror, the spirit of a survivor.

Min remained as fractured as ever, but Hyeon had been careful to cultivate in his brother a curiosity about people. Curiosity that occasionally led to empathy. Min was now a writer in his own right, although he produced graphic novels. It required that he step out of his head and into someone else's once in a while. Hyeon liked to think the job gave Min an appreciation for the highs and lows of humanity.

And as for Hyeon and Joon Young, they too had their highs and lows. But Hyeon never once considered leaving the other man's side. Not for all the dead bodies in the world. He didn't know if that made him as much a monster as Joon Young, but he liked to call it love. It wasn't entirely a lie.

 

When he reached the same calendar date that he had travelled back from, he waited with bated breath for the whole day to pass. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. But that night, in bed with Lee Joon Young, he didn't know which of them held to the other harder or tighter.

It was a relief to realize that life goes on.

 

In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.  
\-- Alex Haley

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can read more about the real life event that the beginning refers to here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miryang_gang_rape  
> (but it's triggering so you really don't have to) Also Dokkaebi is like the Korean version of Oni. 
> 
> Now with an alternate cover. Hope you guys enjoyed this! I'm also on dreamingmappist.tumblr.com if you want to follow me.


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